Cancer Research Journal » Kidney Cancer

FDA Recalls 2 Herbal Supplements Containing Carcinogens

Lisa — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:31:13 +0000

The US Food and Drug Administration has announced the recall of two herbal supplements because they contain high levels of aristolochic acid, a potent carcinogen and nephrotoxin found in certain plants and botanicals.

Aristolochic acid has been linked with kidney cancer and kidney failure.

Both of the carcinogen-containing products, Tou Tong San (Headache Formula) and Du Huo Ji Scheng Tang (Du Huo Joint Relief), are manufactured by Herbal Science International, Inc.

These dietary supplements are two of twelve items voluntarily recalled by Herbal Science International (also known as Jen-On HerbalScience) because they pose potentially serious health hazards or they contain human placenta, an ingredient banned in the US.

The recalled products were sold on the internet, by acupuncturists, and at herbal stores nationwide. Consumers who purchased the products should immediately discontinue their use and return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Those who’ve experienced an adverse reaction after taking the products should contact their doctor. Adverse events should also be reported to the FDA’s MedWatch program at 1-800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.

If you’d like to learn about the other Herbal Science International supplements being recalled, you can read the company’s press release here. Additional information can be obtained by calling the company at (626)333-9998.

Source: FDA MedWatch

Related Podcast: It’s Easy to Miss the Memo on Product Recalls from NPR

Technorati Tags: dietary supplements; natural medicines; oncology; renal cell carcinoma; kidney disease; genitourinary cancers; arthritis; migraines; urothelial carcinoma

Kids with Kidney Cancer Get Good News from St Jude

Lisa — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:19:38 +0000

A study conducted at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital has shown that some kids with kidney cancers classified “inoperable” may actually be able to keep normal kidney function with the help of a surgical procedure called nephron-sparing surgery.

Between 1999 and 2006, St Jude conducted nephron-sparing surgery, otherwise known as partial nephrectomy, on 10 kidney cancer patients under age 10 with bilateral Wilms tumors. Although the tumors appeared inoperable on the preoperative imaging scans, surgeons found they were able to remove the malignant tumors while sparing enough healthy tissue to preserve the child’s renal function.

Children with bilateral Wilms tumors often have one or both kidneys removed in an attempt to eliminate the cancer. If both kidneys are removed, the child requires dialysis and a possible kidney transplant.

Approximately 500 children are diagnosed with Wilms tumors each year in the US and approximately 5 percent of them will have tumors in both kidneys.

All the patients included in the St Jude study successfully treated with nephron-sparing surgery had favorable cell characteristics (histology) as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatments – and all of them are still alive. Nine of them still exhibited normal renal function at their most recent exams. As the study’s senior author stated,

“Many times, physicians will look at a child’s scans and assume that it is impossible to remove the tumor while preserving some uninvolved kidney, but our study indicates that surgeons should not rely solely on the imaging to make that decision.”

Andrew M. Davidoff, MD
Division Chief, General Pediatric Surgery
St Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Authors from the University of Tennessee, Memphis, the University of Washington and the Children’s National Medical Center also participated in the study. If you’d like to learn more about their research, it has been published online in the March 24, 2008, edition of the journal Cancer.

Source: St Jude Children’s Research Hospital News

Related Links: NCI; stanfordstjude.com; ScienceDaily; medpagetoday.com; CNN

Technorati Tags: renal cell carcinoma; surgical oncology; rare diseases; ALSAC; nephroblastoma; cancer treatment

Urology Breakthrough: Single-Port Laparoscopic Surgeries

Lisa — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:18:51 +0000

Dr Mihir Desai, a urological surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, has performed the world’s first single-port laparoscopic surgeries in the field of urology.

The innovative procedures were completed by inserting all the necessary instruments through a single incision in the patient’s navel. Laparoscopic surgeries traditionally require 3 to 6 abdominal incisions.

Dr Desai’s single-port surgeries included a laparoscopic nephrectomy (complete kidney removal), bilateral pyeloplasty (uretero-pelvic junction repair), ileal ureter replacement, and psoas hitch uretero-neocystostomy (for ureteral obstruction).

Indications are the new approach not only reduces pain but, when performed trans-umbilically through the navel, it also leaves no visible scar.

During the procedures, Dr Desai employed a device known as the r-Port™, developed by Advanced Surgical Concepts Ltd of Ireland.

Detailed information on the surgeries will be published in the British Journal of Urology International.

Source: United Press International

Tags: urologic cancers; endourology; renal cell carcinoma; Ohio

Scientists Find Anti-Cancer Agent in South Pacific Soil

Lisa — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:05:44 +0000

Scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the international Pediatric Preclinical Testing Program have been busy trying to unlock the healing secrets of an unusual bacteria discovered in soil samples taken from the volcanic regions of Easter Island.

The bacteria produced a substance known as rapamycin, which was initially shown to be an effective anti-fungal agent. Things really got interesting when drug makers discovered that rapamycin also helped prevent organ rejection in transplant patients by suppressing their immune systems.

Now researchers are studying ways to harness the properties of rapamycin to develop molecularly targeted therapies for various cancers. The team’s preclinical trials with tumor cultures and mouse models have already shown rapamycin has the ability to effectively inhibit the progression of diseases such as rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and one form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A report in the online edition of Pediatric Blood and Cancer details the team’s progress to date. More testing is already in the works according to the report’s lead author,

“During the next stage of testing we will combine rapamycin with standard chemotherapy drugs to see if there are combinations that work particularly well against specific cancers. But the greatest potential for improving treatment might be combining rapamycin and other molecularly targeted drugs in specific ways according to the genetic characteristics of the cancer and of the child.”

Peter Houghton, PhD
Molecular Pharmacology Chair
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Source: St Jude Children’s Research Hospital News

Related Links: Lymphoma Research Foundation

Related Podcast: “Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: From Diagnosis to Therapy” from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Tags: sirolimus, immunosuppressant

FDA Says Sweetener is Still Safe, Italian Scientists Not So Sure

Lisa — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:00:56 +0000

Debate over the safety of aspartame has reignited as a result of a second Italian study linking the artificial sweetener to several cancers in rats.

The controversial research, conducted by the European Ramazzini Foundation in Bologna, Italy, showed an increased instance of leukemia, lymphoma and renal cancers in a population of Sprague Dawley rats who consumed high doses of the common additive over the course of their lives. Unlike rats in a previous study who were killed at the two-year point, these rats were allowed to live until they died naturally.

The findings prompted the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) to call for an urgent review of the product by the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, according to an FDA spokesperson, the agency presently has no plans to conduct a review since the conclusions from the European Ramazzini Foundation study are inconsistent with those drawn from a large number of other completed studies evaluating aspartame’s safety.

Aspartame, commonly marketed as Equal or NutraSweet, is widely used in diet soft drinks and is also sold in packets for use in coffee, tea, or other foods.

Source: CNN

Related Podcasts: MSNBC

Tags: Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center; Merisant; United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization; Morando Soffritti; Michael Jacobson; Michael Herndon; Environmental Health Perspectives; U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Coca-Cola

ORlive: Pictures That Are Worth More Than a Thousand Words

Lisa — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:44:27 +0000

Not so long ago, only medical professionals and sedated patients were allowed inside the operating room while surgery was taking place…not anymore! An amazing web site called ORlive is now giving anyone with internet access the chance to view detailed footage of actual operations.

screenshot from or-live.com video

This innovative site’s search engines allow users to easily locate broadcasts from specific institutions ranging from the Akron Children’s Hospital to Zimmer, Inc, and the capability to sort according to specialties such as cardiovascular, pediatrics, or oncology. In addition to operations, ORlive gives you on-demand access to other medical procedures like radiation treatments and laboratory studies.

Want more? Some of the live webcasts give you the rare opportunity to e-mail questions to the physician(s) who are performing the procedure which they answer before the completion of the segment.

WARNING to those who don’t care for the sight of blood and guts: Videos featured on ORlive are the real deal and are shown from a surgeon’s or provider’s vantage point. Images can be extremely graphic in nature and may not be suitable for some viewers.

Recent webcasts about a new radiation therapy for treating brain tumors and a liver resection surgery will be of particular interest to some cancer patients.

A live broadcast from Tufts-New England Medical Center relating to kidney cancer is also scheduled for July 25, 2007.

ORlive’s free, high quality images are certain to be a valuable resource for students, teachers, patients, caregivers, scientists, journalists, medical providers and the merely curious.

Source: CRJ

Tags: interactive health; Carolinas Medical Center; North Carolina; Hartford Hospital; Connecticut; Trilogy Stereostatic Radiation; CME; Boston; Massachusetts; slp3D; webcasts

Swedish Team Shows Endometriosis Substantially Increases Risk of Certain Cancers

Lisa — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:54:10 +0000

Researchers in Sweden have found that women with endometriosis have a 37 percent greater chance of developing ovarian cancer than women in the general population, regardless of the number of times they have given birth. Additionally, they have documented an increased rate of malignant melanoma, endocrine and brain tumors, and kidney, breast and thyroid cancers among endometriosis patients.

Information on the study was presented by Dr Anna-Sofia Melin at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology held on July 2, 2007. Dr Melin stated that more investigation would be needed before improved treatment recommendations could be provided to doctors.

“Our hope is that doctors in general start to view the endometriosis disease as a serious disease that causes a lot of suffering to the patient and also may lead to cancer. We hope that in the furture we will be able to identify those women with endometriosis that may have a more aggressive form of disease with more atypical cells, for instance, and that this may lead to better care for the patient and, hopefully, to an early diagnosis if cancer should occur.”
– Dr Anna-Sofia Melin

Source: European Society for Human Reproduction & Embryology

New HXR9 Drug Kills Cancer Cells by Blocking HOX Gene Activity

Lisa — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:50:07 +0000

Research at the Postgraduate Medical School at the University of Surrey has led to a new drug, HXR9, which shows promise for treating malignant melanoma as well as lung, prostate, and kidney cancers.

This new drug therapy is designed to stop processes that normally occur in the embryo from being mistakenly reactivated in adult cells.

Results of the project, led by Dr Richard Morgan, are published in the journal Cancer Research. According to Dr Morgan,

“HOX genes are important in determining the identity of cells and tissues in the early embryo, but they are also expressed in cancer cells. HXR9 blocks HOX activity thereby killing cancer cells in a highly specific manner.”

Source: Medical News Today